Playing for Keeps
by The Winter Wizard
Summary: Harry Potter enjoys his fame and uses it to get any girl he wants. But then a certain transfer student comes to Hogwarts and actually rejects him when he asks her out. Why? And what must he do to get her for his own? AU, H/Hr, Triwizard Tournament


**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything to do with Harry Potter.

**Author's Note:** Greetings all! First off, I would like to thank Agent Astro Zombie for writing his fabulous Percy Jackson fanfic called Jackson's Chase. It's what largely inspired this story as did Romeo and Juliet along with our very own Lily, James, and Snape from the Harry Potter Saga. In light of that, I realise it has probably been done before so do forgive me if it has been as I couldn't find another story like this really.

As you will soon see, this is very AU and events not mentioned in the story most probably haven't happened unless I include them in a flashback or two. And before anyone asks, this is a strictly HarryXHermione pairing although there may be one or two others. You'll see what I mean when you read it, and I just want you to know that most other chapters won't be so long as this.

This one's long mainly because of the introduction at the first. While you can skip it, it would be better to read it as I tried to make it different to suit my story. Genuine feedback, advice, and suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I thrive on reviews. Heck, who doesn't? Last but not least, Harry won't stay a jerk forever just for the first few/several chapters. So now without any further ado, I present you with my latest piece of fanfiction!

**Chapter One: **Boy Meets Girl

Harry James Potter was a most unusual wizard.

For one thing, he did not believe in Pureblood Supremacy like most did and for two he defeated the worst Dark Lord of the century when he was a baby. As a result, he was sent to his relatives, the Dursleys, who took him in. They hated him at first because he was magical but then Mrs. Fig started bragging about all of his accomplishments and how he was so rich and famous.

Needless to say, this got the gears turning and instantly the Dursleys turned over a new leaf. Even their precious son Dudley changed and stopped being a spoilt brat. He was still a bit pampered but not so much. Instead, the Dursleys put all their attention in giving their ward – young Harry – the best life they could afford to give him knowing it would pay off well in the long run.

They sold their old house and moved out to the country, hiring a private tutor for the boys in case of accidental magic. It came soon when young Harry spoke to a snake, preventing it from striking and killing Dudley. The Dursleys were very proud of young Harry and encouraged him to use magic. But they only did this so that they could have access to the Wizarding World and Harry's money that came along with it.

They told Harry all the time about his parents' sacrifice and how he was so lucky that he survived. They constantly reminded him that he was forever in their debt but did it in a nice way, so that it wouldn't cause things to get strained between them. Oddly enough, Harry wasn't bothered by their constant lectures and seemed to thrive on all the attention he was getting.

At first, this worried the Dursleys as they got concerned he would turn against them when he went to Hogwarts. But that vanished for when he got his Hogwarts letter, he became an even nicer child if that was possible and would do all the chores he possibly could on their own. He liked to wake up at the crack of dawn for a morning jog too.

He had gotten into a habit of it, so he had a nice figure and would clearly grow into a handsome young man. Another strange thing was that he had very good eyesight and could even see in the dark so he didn't need to wear glasses. The Dursleys didn't know if this was normal or not but as they had no way of finding out they chalked it all up to magic, and his seeing-in-the-dark ability proved to be very useful from time to time.

Once while out on a camping trip during the summer, he and Dudley had gotten lost but Harry was able to use his enhanced eyesight to guide them back to camp which would have been otherwise impossible. Harry was a kind boy too, and very charming. Aunt Petunia knew he would be a little heart-breaker the moment he laid eyes on the first girl he saw when they were visiting an old college of Uncle Vernon's.

Indeed, Harry became quite the lady's man despite his young age. Harry made good marks at school too and was very popular amongst his class, aside from the school bully that is. Still, he never resorted to violence as he was always able to use logic to talk himself out of a fight leaving his opponents behind very confused and surprised.

So he had again become rather famous in that respect and bullies hardly ever touched him, knowing of his reputation. He made lots of friends with whom he would carry out pranks on the school and while Uncle Vernon did not approve of them mostly, they were allowed since Harry let Dudley tag along. In fact, he and Dudley had become pretty good buddies and were almost inseparable.

They would get into arguments like any boys but they would never end in fists. Harry's good luck continued when he moved on to Hogwarts in the Wizarding World and he proved to be a prodigy amongst wizards. Using his talking skills, he became even more famous and was adored across the globe. He was the world's favourite young wizard and had even formed a 'Golden Trio' with his two friends.

One was Luna Lovegood, a pureblood witch, whom he had rescued from a rogue troll on Halloween. They instantly became a couple – or as close of a couple as they could at that age – and were quickly joined by another Pureblood, a wizard, known as Neville Longbottom. He had no enemies at Hogwarts except for one stanch Pureblood called Draco Malfoy.

Draco's family had served the Dark Lord Voldermort that Harry had killed as a baby, so this naturally caused some strife between them since young Draco was something of a spoilt bigot. Harry kept his relatives updated constantly with his beautiful snowy white owl named Hedwig, so the Dursleys were assured that their rivalry was nothing major.

After Harry had defeated the troll, he and the Golden Trio went on to shock the Wizarding World by saving the Philosopher's Stone that had been hidden deep within the school for some bizarre reason. To make matter's worse, it turned out that one of their teachers had been hosting the soul of Voldermort who Harry defeated yet again.

He was able to save the stone which would have given the Dark Lord a body, but Voldermort's soul escaped. After his confrontation and getting patched up in the hospital wing, Dumledore gravely informed Harry that there was an ancient prophecy which stated that he was the only one able to kill Voldermort and the Dark Lord knew this thus his scar.

The Dark Lord was still alive because he had stooped to using forbidden magic in the form of Horcuxes. Horcuxes were pieces of a wizard or witch's soul that were split up and put into various enchanted, or rather cursed, objects. The reason why this practice was so forbidden and illegal was that the wizard or witch in question had to murder an innocent person in cold blood to make the Horcuxe.

Voldermort was practically immortal because he went as far as a wizard could without shattering his soul into oblivion – The monster made _seven_ Horcuxes and hidden them in different places. But Dumledore told Harry to rest assured, knowing that he had his best Aurors tracking them down and his best curse-breakers were accompanying them to destroy the vile abominations.

While Harry was somewhat mad at the old man for keeping this information from him, he realised that he was not really old enough to know about this and forgave the wizard. At least he didn't have to worry about that. The school year ended relatively peaceful and summer came and went with Harry showing all the spells he knew to his very proud and amazed relatives.

He even knew of a few ways to charm Muggle items that his relatives could use without doing magic, but had them swear a Wizard's Oath for the secrecy laws so that no one else would find out save other wizards and witches. They agreed to reluctantly and summer was a blast. Harry did all his homework and even practiced a few magical experiments on his cousin Dudley.

He had attempted to transform him into a pig once while practicing Transfiguration but all that he accomplished was sprouting a pig's tail on his cousin's rear. After some momentary surprise on both of their parts, they cracked up laughing and Harry quickly cancelled the spell putting his cousin back to normal.

They would always tease each other about various spells that went wrong and because of that Dudley wound up with the nickname 'Big D' in regards to the pig tail. Dudley didn't mind as it was just silly banter between them. They were friends and that was that. The next two school years passed by in a relatively similar matter with Harry growing stronger and stronger in magic.

There was one instance when a Basilisk attempted to invade the school during a Quidditch Match but Harry was able to swoop down and kill it using wandless magic. He had been so scared and angry that the fat snake tried to interrupt his favourite game ever that it burst forth from him shocking everybody.

Once again he increased in popularity and that insured his rights to the dead Basilisk as it was invaluable for magical ingredients for thing like potions. His House, Gryffindor, made him a specially charmed necklace complete with a mock Basilisk fang in honour of him saving them all and he wore it with pride.

The next year after that was pretty good too except that a deranged Death Eater, Bellatrix Lestrange, broke out of Azkaban – the magical prison in the Wizarding World. Azkaban was guarded by the worst and darkest sort of creatures known as Dementors. They could also be called 'Soul Stealers' for they preyed on their prisoners worst memories, sucking out parts of their soul as they did so leaving them a wreck.

So this was part of the reason why Bellatrix was so insane but also because she was the most loyal servant of Voldermort when he was alive. She was practically in love with him as the rumour went, but no one knew whether or not the Dark Lord reciprocated her feelings since she was, in fact, married to another Death Eater Pureblood wizard.

Regardless, she managed to break out of jail somehow and used a Vanishing Cabinet stowed away in a forgotten chamber of Hogwarts to enter the school. Wanting revenge against her master's death, she tried to kill Harry only be slain by his Blood Magic bestowed upon him due to his mother's sacrifice.

This was also how he killed the old Defence Professor who had hosted Voldermort's soul. Naturally, this caused quite a stir amongst the Wizarding World and the Dursleys actually found themselves getting worried about their charge. Of course, they were more worried about not getting his money and Harry knew that.

He was fine with it but a little sad since he never knew real love. People just liked being around him due to his fame, good looks, and charm. But the young prodigy subdued this angst by girls. Thanks to his fame, they were easy to come by and some were actually pretty nice and friendly even when he broke up with them.

He had never went through that 'girls are yucky' stage so he it was a lot easier, although he never had a steady girlfriend as odd as it sounded for one so young as him. He even dated during the summer – especially the summer. Most of his relationships lasted for a few days to a week at most and were mainly to ignore his guilt at not knowing real love.

How could he when his relatives really loved him for his money and got what they wanted to? He almost wondered about his two friends but they always stuck by him no matter what, so he eventually stopped worrying about them. They were friends after all, so no amount of bad press and gossip ruined their companionship.

Harry pondered all of these things as he sat in an empty compartment within Hogwarts Express, while the train jostled back and forth in that familiar way. It was his fifth year at Hogwarts and he was feeling very excited, nervous but excited. Due to his age, he could now date a wider range of girls who were slightly older than him.

He knew of a few who wanted him even though he was young but even he had his limits. Also, rumour had it that the famous Triwizard Tournament was being hosted this year at Hogwarts. Two other magical schools from Europe were competing in it allegedly and the best part about it was that there were no age limits.

Thankfully, the Tournament was being handled by younger and more contemporary wizards and witches, causing an update in the three Tasks each school Champion had to participate in. As he had read in Hogwarts: A History, Champions were selected by the Goblet of Fire. The Goblet never lied so no one could cheat and put their names in it.

Of course, very young wizards and witches could not participate as they had to be at least twelve years of age. That was fine by Harry as he was old enough to join if he wanted to although he seriously doubted that he would be chosen as there were scores of other students who would throw their names in too. He had wanted to talk to Luna and Neville about it but they busy, or so they said.

_Snogging probably,_ Harry thought dryly.

Over time, Luna and Neville had gotten closer and closer than just friends. While this did not affect their friendship with him, things had gotten slightly awkward as the two young people gave each other guarded smiles and other various shy acts of affection.

So it was that Harry had found himself in an empty cabin waiting impatiently for the train ride to end. He would sit next to his friends at the feast so he didn't need to worry about that at all.

They had also met often during the holiday and had even come over to the Dursleys on more than one occasion. Still, Harry was surprised to realise that he felt lonely without them but brutally shoved that thought away.

Trying to distract himself, he practiced Occlumency for a bit and then tried to decide which girl he would date first. There were sure to be some hot ones coming from the new schools, so he wracked his brain for different ways to catch their attention.

There was even talk of Veelas coming from the Wizarding School in France. Finally, he got bored of that and heaved a sigh letting his eyes wander throughout his cabin resting on the glass door. Just when he thought he decided to read a book to kill the time, the door opened and someone cleared her throat.

Her?

Harry's eyes shot open and his gaze swung to the door. His jaw dropped as he saw a new witch he had never seen before standing hesitantly in the doorway. She had enticingly curly brown hair that could have been described of as 'bushy' if Harry hadn't noticed that she thinned it a bit.

Cautious brown eyes sought his and Harry was impressed to see that she was a looker too, with soft white skin, legs that went on seemingly forever, and an ample chest. She wore modest but fashionable robes, and her hands were on her hips with her school bag slung over her shoulder. Harry cursed mentally as his mouth watered at the beauty before him.

_Must be a transfer student or something,_ He thought vaguely, his eyes discreetly taking in every glorious detail about her.

She was certainly a looker, and Harry knew instantly that she was his next 'target'.

"Hello, my name's Hermione," The stunning newcomer said. "Have you seen a toad? A boy named Collin Creevey's lost one..."

Her voice trailed off as if uncomfortable and Harry had to swallow hard, giving himself a mental shake.

_Snap out of it!_ He berated himself. _You'll look like an idiot in front of this girl._

"Um, hi?" Harry asked stupidly, still feeling slightly distracted by the beauty in front of him.

Hermione's face flushed, whether from anger or embarrassment Harry couldn't tell. He decided it was anger because she shot him a dark look and turned away to leave.

Crashing back to reality, Harry scrambled out of his cabin, not wanting to miss this golden opportunity, and hastened after Hermione. The girl was leaving with a determined stride and it was with some effort that Harry ignored the bewitching sway of her shapely bum.

_Get a hold of yourself, Potter!_ He thought ruefully. _Stop ogling her!_

Instinct kicking in, his hand shot out and snatched her wrist. Hermione spun around with an alarming speed and Harry was stunned to see a wand pointed at his throat. Chocolate brown eyes flashed dangerously at his surprised green ones.

Harry's heart nearly leapt into his throat. It looked like this girl had her wand for a long time and knew how to use it. He had never had this happen to him before as girls were usually putty in his hands. What the heck was going on here?

"What do you want?" She demanded sharply.

Everyone around them stopped talking as her voice carried out loudly with an unusual authority in it, and people gapped in surprise to see Harry in this predicament. Harry swallowed hard and cursed himself inwardly to feel sweat beading on his forehead.

"Ah, a date?" Harry stammered, taken completely off-guard.

If looks could kill, Harry would have been burned to death. To make matter's worse, Hermione actually spat in his face dropping his wrist in disgust.

"In your dreams," She growled.

"So I can dream of you then?" Harry asked stupidly, trying to break the ice as everyone starred at them in surprise.

"Not if you want to keep your manhood intact," Hermione retorted, making Harry flush in anger and embarrassment.

"So you wanna play it like that, do you?" He shot back, yanking out his own wand.

"Only a coward would attack a girl," Hermione smirked, clearly unfazed by his threat.

"Why make such a big deal?" Harry asked. "Just go out with me and we can forget this ever happened."

"Is that the way things go around here?" Hermione asked with unnerving calm.

"Maybe," Harry replied smugly.

"Then I want no part of it!" Hermione snapped.

Harry winced inwardly as he felt raw magical power rolling off her in great vibrant waves. It was fuelled by her fear, and anger. Harry was powerful in his own right but this witch was different. She was obviously very powerful and not bothered by bullies and threats.

Unlike him, it looked like she would use actual force and get away with it if someone bothered her. He began to wonder where she learned magic before coming here but forced himself to focus. He had a reputation to maintain and he could not let some random new girl spoil it.

"Well then you don't belong here," Harry growled, preparing a non-lethal hex.

"Oh, yeah?" Hermione asked sarcastically. "We'll see about that."

The two tense young people were practically surrounded by a raging hurricane of magic, which naturally attracted as large a crowd of students as possible to the hallway to see what in the world was going on. They all stared in awe and wonder, some with a bit of alarm, as Harry faced off the new girl. The spells would have been launched if someone hadn't intervened just then.

"Expelliarmus!" Someone cried, and immediately Harry and Hermione's wands flew out of their hands.

Both teenagers spun around angrily practically seething in rage from being interrupted in their fight. Harry fumed to see that it was Percy the Gryffindor House Prefect staring disdainfully at him.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," He crooned. "Fighting with girls, Potter? I thought you were above that."

"Give it back, Percy," Harry snapped, clenching his hands at his sides.

"Considering the circumstances I'm afraid I can't," Percy Weasley drawled.

"What?" Hermione asked in surprise.

"However," Percy continued, oblivious to their protests. "If you swear not to continue this fight and go to separate cabins for the duration of the trip then I shall reconsider. As House Prefect it is my duty to stop fights before they begin after all."

Neither Harry nor Hermione said a word, as none of them wanted to be the first one to cave. Harry nearly sighed in relief when Hermione was the first to crack.

"Fine," She said through clenched teeth. "I will not attack Harry again, at least not unless he provokes me."

Percy nodded his approval and arched an eyebrow appraisingly at Harry.

"Potter?" He asked triumphantly.

Harry gave in.

"Yeah, whatever," Harry drawled. "I won't fight her so long as she stays out of my way."

"Very well then," Percy said, and handed the wands back to the teenagers adding. "Return to your seats, everyone!"

All the other students groaned, annoyed that the fight had been interrupted. But their annoyance turned to eagerness when that tell-tale ripple of lively gossip filled the air.

"Great," Harry muttered. "Just great."

Before he turned to leave, he glanced out of the corner of his eye to see Hermione looking over her shoulder at him. Her eyes glinted in triumph and Harry glared back at her.

'This isn't over yet,' His eyes seemed to say.

'Bring it on!' Hermione's eyes retorted.

Unable to stifle a rush of excitement within him, Harry took a deep breath and searched for Neville and Luna who were whispering quietly amongst themself, darting him the occasional worried look. Harry just rolled his eyes, unconcerned, and headed over to join them.

He knew that they would have a long conversation about this with Luna going on about him needing medicine for the Nargals in his hair. Harry only half-listened to them berating him, while he secretly made a plan. Hermione would be his no matter what even if it was the last thing he'd do.

Smirking at his anticipated triumph, he sat back contentedly awaiting the new school year. And something told him that this would be a very interesting one indeed!

**To Be Continued...**

**A/N:** One thing I must say before I go is that Sirius Black (a huge cliché in the Harry Potter fandom) probably won't be included in this fanfic. For those of you who like him, you can say that he died trying to kill Peter Pettigrew to avenge James and Lily's death. In addition, unless I find some way around it to suit my story Harry will NOT be a Horcuxe and Dumledore is not trying to manipulate Harry. He has no plans for him to die and all that other stuff. This is not an angst story, well not really anyways. Harry will have nightmares of Voldermort but he isn't a Horcuxe. They just have a weird connection. So...like it? Love it? Hate it? Leave a review so that I can make this fanfic better yet!


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